What would the late Brian Douglas Wells think of the new movie “30 Minutes or Less?”

He’s the pizza delivery man whose tragic scenario became the concept for the forthcoming Jesse Eisenberg comedy. In 2003, Wells — who allegedly helped plan the crime — found himself strapped to a bomb he reportedly believed was fake and committed a bank robbery with two other people. By the time Wells learned the device was real, it was too late to defuse it, it exploded while he was strapped into it, and he died. All caught on tape.

Meanwhile, another real-life episode just played out in Australia, where an 18 year-old Sydney woman was attacked and her neck rigged with an elaborate bomb by a man hoping to extort money from her father. This time bomb disposal experts removed and disabled it.

It’s commonplace for movies and TV shows to borrow concepts from true stories, adapting and adjusting as they see fit. The various “Law & Order” programs are famous for plotlines that mirror recent — and often gruesome — incidents. And last year’s Hilary Swank-starring “Conviction,” about the lawyer Betty Ann Waters and her lifelong struggle to free her wrongly imprisoned brother Kenneth Waters from a life behind bars, left out the aftermath involving Kenneth’s accidental death six months after his release.

But those are dramas. And “30 Minutes or Less” is a heist comedy where one can safely assume that Eisenberg’s bomb-strapped innocent man not only survives the robbery but learns some lessons about life along the way.

Some comedies can take a real-life serious, even horrible event or concept and turn it into a good movie. The little-seen "Four Lions" was much praised, and it depicted the lives of some bumbling terrorists.